Noir Hero
by bones'squintsquad
Summary: Can the squints find the Jeffersonian's missing body and one of their own before it's too late? Or will one of their own be lost?
1. Chapter 1

_Noir Hero_

_**The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time.**__**  
**__**Frank Miller**_

Chapter 1

_She knew that they could never be together, there was just too much baggage, but deep in her heart, he was the one that she wanted and they both knew it. She didn't want to say that she loved him, because the minute that she did, it became real and her heart could be broken. She was safer keeping all her emotion for him bottled up inside._

_He was her hero. Her knight in shining armor, always coming to her rescue. He had even taken a bullet for her. He knew her better than anyone, and they were partners. But would it ever be anything more than that?_

_He's the strongest love that she had ever felt ever felt__._

With a sigh, Dr. Temperance Brennan closed her laptop and leaned back, she had a major case of writer's block. Reading over what she had just typed, she realized that it was more about her and Booth than Kathy and Andy. Holding down the delete button she deleted it all and was left staring at a blank screen. Giving up on the story, she got up from behind her desk and streached. Sitting down all day had left her stiff and sore, and it felt good when her joints popped. Leaving her office, she headed to the forensics platform to look at the remains of a young girl that had washed up on the shore of the Potomac River. Swiping her security card, she was surprised to see that the rest of her team had left, and that the remains were not where they had been a hour ago. Thinking Cam might have sent them for an x-ray or CAT scan, she checked the logs, but the only remains that had been sent were those of a twenty- year old man from Limbo, their twelve year old Jane Doe wasn't. Pulling out her phone and hitting speed dial, she waited for Cam to answer.

"Hi, Cam, it's me," she said, once Dr. Saroyan picked up. "Yeah, I'm still at the Jeffersonian, I was going to take a look at that Jane Doe we got earlier, but there's a bit of a problem."

"What sort of problem?" Cam asked grumpily, and Brennan could tell that she had sleeping.

"The body's missing."

"What?"

"The body's missing and since corpses cannot get up and walk away, someone either misplaced it or it was stolen. At first I though you might have sent it to get a CAT scan or something, but there's no record of it..."

"Call Hodgins, Booth and Angela, I'll be there in twenty."

Brennan hung up the phone, even more confused than when she had called. _Who would steal a body?_ she wondered.

Exactly twenty minutes after she had hung up the phone with Booth, the last person that she had called, Brennan and her squints were gathered on the forensics platform.

"I don't understand," Booth said, looking around. "Why would anyone want to steal a dead body?"

Wendell didn't look at him, but said, "To keep us from figuring out who killed her and who she was."

"Well, they succeeded, didn't they? There are no bones left to identify," he said, and in response got a mean glare from Brennan that could melt stone. In all the years that they had worked together, he still hadn't learned not to tell her something was impossible, because if he did, she would do everything in her power to prove him wrong.

"We still have the security tape. We'll find them," she said, confidently, but he saw the look Cam gave her. He cocked his eyebrows at her, asking silently what was wrong. Brennan turned to face Cam just as she shook her head slightly. Brennan saw the headshake and knew what it meant with a sinking heart. _There were no security tapes._

_How are we ever going to identify this girl now? _She thought, and then it came to her. Turning to one of her squints, she asked, "Angela, can you give our girl a face from the crime scene photographs?"

The artist looked a bit skeptical, but agreed to give it a try and after getting the photographs from Brennan, left the rest of the squints on the platform.

Brennan turned to the rest of the squints. "I know it's late, and I know you're all tired, but I know we can find something." They all nodded in agreement, and went of to their stations to analyze what little evidence there was.


	2. Chapter 2

"Bones! I swear, if you don't put that bone down and come eat something in the next five minutes, I will make Angela take you shopping every weekend until kingdom come!" Booth shouted across the room to her.

She didn't even look up from the bone that she was investigating. "Fallacious threat. You can't make Angela do anything that she doesn't want to. She's a grown woman, and I doubt that she would want to go shopping every weekend." With a sigh, she looked over at her partner. She knew that he wouldn't leave her alone until she went with him to eat lunch. "And it's not just any bone, it's a hamate bone." She could see him rolling his eyes.

"Those bones have been sitting in limbo for years, I don't think a few more hours would hurt them any." He saw her glare at him, he knew that she hated the bone storage being called limbo, but he knew that if he annoyed her long enough, she would come to lunch with him, even if it was only to get a little bit of peace. He watched as she realized that he was right, she did need to eat and that the bones would still be there when they got back.

She walked over to him and he held out her jacket and helped her put it on. "How many times do I have to tell you that I am capable of putting on my own coat and opening my own door? I am not a cripple."

"I know, but just let me do it for you."

She ignored him and hurried down the steps, headed for the front door.

"Brennan!" Angela's voice came from somewhere behind her, and it sounded like she had some important news that she couldn't wait to tell the doctor.

"Ange," Booth's voice came from somewhere behind Angela. "I'm trying to get Bones some lunch."

"Agent Studly, will you please be quiet? I am about to blow Bren's mind and rock her world. Now-" she said, turning to Brennan and getting ready to say something but was cut off.

"Ange, how are you going to 'rock my world' and 'blow my mind'? Both of those are physically impossible." Instead of responding, the artist just gave her a look. "Oh, you were being metaphorical."

"Sweetie, I id'd your victim. Her name is Sabina Jamison, and she went missing four weeks ago from her school." Angela handed her the sketch, and a young girl no older than twelve looked up at her, and then the file. "Bren, this one may be tough."

"Any case involving young children is tough, Ang. You know that."

"I know, but she was a foster child." Brennan visibly faltered. "Bren?"

"I'm fine," She said, but the slight tremble in her voice said otherwise. Booth was at her side in an instant.

"Bones? Let's go, okay?" Wordlessly, she nodded and allowed him to lead her out of the Jeffersonian and out to his car. He knew something was bothering her, because she didn't even protest that he opened her door for her, which was defiantly unlike her.

She broke the tense silence once they were both inside the car. " That girl- Sabina- could have easily been me."

He reached over and took her hand in his. "But it wasn't, Bones, and we will catch whoever did this to her, okay?" She nodded, and tried to hide the sniffle, but he heard it. This was _his _Bones in pain, and there was nothing he could do about it. "What do you want for lunch?" he asked, trying to regain some semblance of normalcy. "Thai? The diner?"

"You choose." Okay, that was weird. The only time she let him choose was when he brought her dinner, if she could choose, she always did, she hated not being in control.

"The diner it is." The ride to the diner passed in silence until he heard her muttering something under her breath. "Bones? What are you saying?" She turned to him and quickly wiped at a tear that was threating to slide down her cheek.

_"If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane. I would walk right up to Heaven and bring you back again. No farewell words were spoken, No time to say "Goodbye". You were gone before I knew it, and only God knows why. My heart still aches with sadness and secret tears still flow. What it meant to love you - No one can ever know." _She muttered so quietly that he could barely hear her. _"But now I know you want me_ _to mourn for you no more;_ _To remember all the happy times_ _life still has much in store._ _Since you'll never be forgotten,_ _I pledge to you today~_ _A hollowed place within my heart_ _is where you'll always stay. _It's the last thing my last foster mother ever said to me before I left, it's the poem 'If tears-"

"-could build a stairway," they finished together. "Yeah, my mom read it once or twice," he said and the smiled at each other. He reached for her hand, the one that was resting on the console and gently wrapped his fingers around hers. "I will never let anything ever happen to you, Bones," he said fiercely.


End file.
